The fashion prints of the 1980s were not for the faint-hearted, it was a decade that celebrated excess. The Cloth and Hilde Smith for Bodymap were significant in the avant-garde for textiles, as well as in fashion. In 1983, the influential American trade paper Women's Wear Daily commented in their article 'England's Fabric' on 'the humour, the willingness to take risks, the unexpectedness and the eccentricity that only the British could deliver. London offers new directions'. Textile designers explored new ways to manufacture, as digital printing was not yet an option.
(The summer 1985 collection of the design group The Cloth, displayed in the windows of the London store Liberty. Photo by Anita Corbin.)
(The Cloth created backdrops for the windows of Liberty of London as a showcase for their summer 1985 collection, 'Summer Simmitts'. The T-shirts, shirts and shorts, printed in bright colours on white cotton jersey, were displayed in the store alongside an exhibition of paintings from the group)
(An exploration of the significance and mythology of the English wooden landscape. 'The Spirit of the Forest' was designed in 1987 - a seven-colour print using acid dyes and produced in three colourways.)
Innovation in print design was spearheaded for the first time by fashion fabric designers, rather than designers of interiors. This was a result of the developing awareness of fashion's role in a newly expanding consumer culture, which led to a greater acceleration of trends.
The dramatic shapes and the adjoining vibrant colours provide an intensely abstract experience in this painterly design by Liberty.
Artwork for a Liberty print design. Geometric pieces of tissue paper are overlaid with painted and printed marks, then directly described onto the cloth by the screen-printing process.
British textile designer Hilde Smith's work, 'Cosmic Check' is a monochrome play on tartan. Designed for Bodymap's 1985 collection, 'Barbie Takes a Trip Around Nature's Cosmic Curves'.
A monoprint from Val Furphy and Ian Simpson of design studio Furphy Simpson. The base is dark brown crepe de Chine, a fabric much favoured by the design duo for the discharge printing process.
Deceptively casual mark-making within a structured grid, in this print design by Brian Bolger of The Cloth, 1985.
A single-screen print design from Vivienne Westwood's first independent range in 1981, 'Pirates'. The collection utilised a palette of African-inspired colours and a serpentine, undulating motif often seen in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
A mixed-media exercise in paint, collaged paper and felt-tipped pens come together with fragmented areas of pattern in this eleven-colour screen-print design by Liberty.
Collaged tissue paper in the original artwork provides the transparency in this print by Liberty. The boundaries between the eight colours are scrupulously observed, with no overlapping of colour, and are divided by a strong, fragmented line, emphasised by the narrow white margins.
A pencil doodle was the inspiration for this colour discharge print out of black silk, for Italian label Cerruti, by Furphy Simpson.
A linocut design by Furphy Simpson, featuring a tattooed bird in the hand. Originally in black and white, it was recoloured by the American design label Williwear.
A design by Furphy Simpson used by both British designer and retailer Paul Smith and British retailer Next menswear, though in different colour ways. The design utilised the wax-resist technique.
Predating the Memphis group by a decade, the Swedish design group Tio-Gruppen displayed a post-modern attitude to pattern. This design references the Art Deco fan/sunrise motif. 'Helios' (named after the Greek personification of the sun) is from the 'Megaphone' collection and was designed in 1983 by Ingela Håkansson.
'Bongo', from the 'Signal' collection designed by Tom Hedqvist for Tio-Gruppen in 1985, is a pastiche of 1950s style.
A Furphy Simpson print design deploying a double discharge technique; brushstokes and wax drawings were enlarged on a small screen.
A half-drop repeat print by Moschino, featuring the male form in various guises - from super heroes, cowboys and Roman centurions to characters such as Harlequin, from the commedia dell'arte.
A classic rich paisley print on this dress by the American couturier Bill Blass, a favourite designer of the US president's wife, Nancy Reagan.
Emblazoned with the motifs of conspicuous consumption - credit cards, shopping malls and fashion labels - the silk dressing gown by American designer Nicole Miller illustrates all the cultural ephemera of the 1980s.
An understated printed silk design by the Italian label Gucci, the faux-tweed effect created by varying scales in rows of tiny flower heads.
Print for a tailored jacket in wool crepe by the British designer Jean Muir. Renowned for the understated simplicity and sophisticated technique of her cutting, and use of navy and black, even this most uncompromising of designers produced the essential element of every businesswoman's wardrobe, a power-shouldered jacket, here in bright red with a subtle, Japanese-inspired print.
The most recognisable logo in fashion - the overlapping double Cs of the Parisian couturière Coco Chanel - was designed by her in 1925 and remains unchanged today. The scarf is illustrated with trompe l'oeil images of jewellery. The designer set the trend for costume jewellery and precious stones in informal settings in the 1920s, an irrelevant and democratic approach to displaying wealth entirely in keeping with the excesses of the 1980s.
Hyper-real, large-scale blooms distinguish this design by Furphy Simpson.
A performance-packed print design, 'Pow', from the 'Wave' collection by Alexander Henry Fabrics.
'It's a Blast' from the 'Metro' collection by Alexander Henry Fabrics. California-based print design company Alexander Henry Fabrics was uniquely placed to catch the wave of a new generation of surfers with their textile designs.
'Moonlanding' is a design from Furphy Simpson. It was executed on paper using Omnicrom machine and printed on nylons and cotton.
Wild and domestic cats float on a turquoise velvet background in this all-over print design by Natalie Gibson.
A subdued but intense print on a wool crepe dress by the Italian-born couturier Emanuel Ungaro, a favourite designer with the cast members of the American television soap Dynasty.
The 1980s heralded a return to the popularity of the animal print: this bastardised version appeared on a dress by the American designer Diane Fres. The popularity of animal prints such as faux leopard dates from the early nineteenth century, when Napoleon returned to Paris from his expedition to North Africa with real hides. The wearing of animal skins is seen as a desire to convey the same behavioural traits as those of the animals. The spotted coat of the female leopard - the female being the fiercest fighter - is perceived as representing the archetypal femme fatale, implying killer instincts.
A simple and tonally harmonious print design on a silk blouse by the American designer Anne Pinkerton.
'Zeebak', a furnishing fabric inspired by Native American motifs, by Liberty.
'Celebration' by Timney Fowler. Classical meets modern in this clash of colours and architectural details, printed on crepe de Chine.
Fish-like shapes float across the surface of an off-white circle, in this design, 'Moonfish', by Georgina von Etzdorf.
Brightly coloured blooms flourish on a dark background in this design, 'Poppy', from an original watercolour painting by Georgina von Etzdorf.
